Anthony,


I made a remark about this when you wrote this, but (sadly) I scratched it because I drifted off in that particular post (so the whole post wasn't posted). But my remark about this was :

The sizzle is a tough one to interpret;
For me it could be an indication (and I mean when I perceive that myself) that some higher frequency is riding on it all which make the S sizzle. Btw, same can happen with a nylon string although I'd call that "zzoooming";

In both cases (S and nylon string) this *is* a good characteristic and at least for the nylon string I will not be able to discern the better and the worse. To understand this, we better look at the sizzling S and try to see how much real that would be. I mean, try to produce that sizzle yourself; you will be able to do it, but it won't be easy (it's even hard to hear it yourself and another person needs to listen).
Now, when you have tried this and have seen how difficult it is, you can come to the conslusion that what you perceive from a random track with random singer with his/her random S that sizziling is not likely. Also, it needs "Z" to be incorporated which is why it hardly can be a natural S you're hearing.

This has been my perception for a longer time, but I must say that I never really "tuned" on it, because the sizzling seems to exhibit better resolution/resolvement and audibly it is not disturbing. Also, combine it with the nylon string which gets better from it (plus better discernable from the metal string) and you are fine. Still, when the chips are down like in these posts (about PE and such) I think it should be (?) a measure of the wrong. And of course it is placeboed in my mind because of no ground = no good.

It's only sad that I scratched this text at the time I wrote it which was way early in the topic because then I would have been predictive while now it seems in aftermath. But really not so.

Btw, I now wrote it after all bcause I tried to make a best choice of your table of happenings which I couldn't. So the best choice would be one which plops with your solution of not switching the lights but which right away also prooves that PE is used for signal ground. Notice that "signal ground" is of various types, only one of them real (music output) signal ground and you can see it by the DC Offset changing or not locking.

What I only start to recognize is how a PC itself can be the baddy in this all, because I can see that I myself can't get things wrong at this moment, while the whole (DC Offset) setup has been created with another PC which *did* have problems like not wanting to start. Not much useful for you all, but this same PC ended up elsewhere (not for music playback) and when it was powered down I had to ... detach USB devices (like a printer) before it ever wanted to boot.
I can also add the fairly unrelated (or not) happening that half a year or so ago, we were struck by direct lightning and everything survided expect that PC (main earth switch tripped). After that it never wanted to boot again and it was replaced.

Remember, it is only today that I am able to combine these things (or suggest they are related) and it can only happen from more "sightings" from guys like you, your experiments and your descriptions of it.
These things are mighty difficult and even while I'm focused on it, it apparantly takes years to nail it down. To some extend that is, but we won't stop experimenting.
Personally (but I don't see all) I think that the few forums posts in here - relative to say millions elsewhere - are so much more valuable than these millions of others.

Peter

And be careful with static!

regards, Coen

Yo Anthony,


You'll remember my connection which doesn't want to work without clear reason ? You may not want to believe this (I dare not te believe it myself at this moment), but it can well be that you just handed me the reason ...

That connection too is isolated (think no bracket);
Skipping a few things I don't know (or didn't sort out back then - like what pins exactly provide which), in MY situation the black wire in the NOS1 was there all right, but PE is not provided (using a 2 pong, say). Additionally, MY external PSU provision (part of the ) does NOT provide PE hence nothing connects to PE anywhere and now I'm not sure. It's almost like PE will provide a ground path to the PCIe bus or something. Well, that will not be correct but what the heck is happening really. So, I'll be damned if my connection works after all if I only connect a few devices to PE (currently the PC is the only device doing that).

Can someone hand me an idea how additional (signal) ground over PE would be able to provide more current ? I mean, outside of what I said above, I have the idea that when something like what happened to Anythony (won't see the NOS1) this is about not enough current provided. So, way more current is needed to load the binary to the USB interface (FPGA in there). And if that current is not there sufficiently, just nothing will happen. Now I envision Anthony's situation (but could be mine as well) as something like a signal (plus) wire of certain gauge, ground is actually lacking but goes through tiny leaks up to through air or whatever illegal - that will let USB work in itself (card is recognized) but as soon as more current is needed (plug in NOS1) it's not enough. However, PE will provide enough always and nobody notices a thing about (design !) faults etc. because PE is to be there always.

Was this clear somewhat ?

Peter

Which makes me think that you're explicitly using PE for signal ground in this situation. But when the whole story is taken into account, it also works the other way around : when all grounds are connected as should at the PC end, now USB signal ground goes over PE. Or at least it can (whether really so depends on many things).

Question (and maybe I should read back all the details) :
Anthony, do you now have an understanding of what ground you are really using ? So, still it has to come from somewhere (and you've proven it's not the USB cable).
Any one-liner for this ?

Thanks,
Peter

Anthony,

General remark : I think most of us will be using the NOS1 without PE. This is just because I advise it *if* the subject is in order in the first place. But I often mention(ed) it in the forum as well.
Notice that this in itself is totally UNrelated to that black wire being mounted or not (no matter you'd think a 100 times "so, what is it for then without connection to PE in the first place").

Regards,
Peter

AC Coupling Capacitors
The PCI Express add-in card and system board shall incorporate AC coupling capacitors on
the transmitter differential pair.  This is to ensure blocking of the DC path between the PCI
Express add-in card and the system board.  The suggested minimum 603-type (or smaller
402-type) capacitor with a value as specified in the PCI Express Base Specification.  Any
additional attenuation or jitter caused by the coupling capacitors (other than 603-type) must
be accounted for as part of the allocation for the physical component on which the
capacitors are mounted.  The electrical budgets allocated for the AC coupling capacitors are
defined in the following subsections.  The allocated budget includes the electrical parasitic
associated with the component placement as on the PCB.